The ongoing investigation of Sherlock Holmes, reported from the Peoria, Illinois outpost of Baker Street's dirtiest half a dozen.

Wednesday, January 13, 2016

The 1.5 billion Sherlockian.

There's a little bubble of time many a Sherlockian has been living in this week that's about to burst.

It probably has already burst for a lot of us already, but I haven't looked at the new, the numbers, or my ticket just yet, so I have a few more moments to dream. Because that's what we pay for when we buy a ticket to a big lottery like the Powerball drawing that hit one and a half billion dollars as its prize this week. We're paying a few bucks just for a single ray of hope to dream by.

Silly? A fool's investment? Sure. But if you're too practical to dream every now and then, or waste a few dollars on a conversational topic, well, just go away, you're probably no fun.

Oh, come back, I need all the readers I can get. I'm sorry.

But back to this lottery silliness. Was it a mere coincidence that the Powerball drawing hit this unheard of height just after we heard that St. Bart's Hospital was going up for rent? For a week or so, it was entirely possible that a Sherlock Holmes fan could get struck by impossible lightning and rent the single most important location in both the whole Sherlockian canon and the Sherlock TV series? 221B Baker Street has always been at some hazy, arguable location, as it should be, but Bart's?

Can you imagine the uber-Sherlockian setting up their HQ in the upper levels of Bart's with a good supply of spendable cash? Developing the hospital beneath into a full-on Sherlockian mecca? Well, a hospital might be a more useful institution, but we're dreaming here.

But Bart's is just one direction you could go, if you were going to be more Sherlockian than humanitarian with the mega-windfall. You could bankroll a major motion picture adaptation of Sherlock Holmes to suit your own tastes. You could just start attending a different Sherlockian event every weekend and often two or three times a weekend, jetting from place to place. You could hold the convention to end all conventions and fly in all the living superfans and stars and writers for some serious panels and events. You couldn't do it all, of course, as even 1.5 billion has its limits after taxes. But with a little focus and a single target or two, you could make a pretty big move.

In the end, you would probably be just a heightened version of the Sherlockian you are now, doing the things you like to do now at a much different level. (So I'd be blogging in a fancier font, I guess.)

But this little Powerball moment of dreaming is about to disappear, and I'm not entirely satisfied with any of the plans I've come up with as yet, so I suppose it will be okay if I don't win it . . . this time.

2 comments:

I guess I am too practical - as I have never purchased a lottery ticket - perhaps I am just waiting for a REALLY BIG payoff - nah, that would mean even harder odds of winning, (and I am a cheap bastard, also)